Updated 11.50am - Added video

Former Birkirkara FC president Adrian Delia this morning formally submitted his candidacy to contest the Nationalist Party leadership.

Reflecting his 'outsider' political status as he never contested a political election, Dr Delia launched his campaign titled 'a new way'.

Father of five Dr Delia - a lawyer for the past 25 years - said that he had decided to take the plunge as he wanted to start a radical reform within the PN and make it the most popular political force in Malta once again. 

He said that the party needed a fresh beginning and that the time was ripe for him to enter the fray and give his all to reconnect the PN with all strata of society.

Asked by the Times of Malta as to how, if elected leader, he would enter parliament, Dr Delia said he was confident that a sitting MP would be willing to vacate their seat for him.

Dr Delia launches his leadership campaign.

He did not, however, say whether any particular MP had indicated a willingness to do so. 

'PN leader should not do police's job'

Dr Delia expressed disagreement with the PN's decision to file a court application seeking an inquiry into money laundering suspicions by the Prime Minister's right-hand man Keith Schembri.

It was not the PN leader's job, he said, to do the work of the police and the Attorney General in a normal country.

Asked whether he felt Mr Schembri's case was being handled as it should, he Dr Delia said that institutions are not acting normally.

However, he said that he would rather have the issue referred to the Constitutional court.